Instagram has one billion active users, where 25 million of those users are business accounts. Eighty percent of Instagram users follow at least one business account. By creating an Instagram account dedicated to your business, you open up a door where people can engage with your online content.

media update’s Talisa Jansen van Rensburg here, do you have a cup of coffee and your business game face on? I’ll be giving you the tools to create a simple yet effective Instagram business account.

(*Side Note: This is more play than work but while creating your account, please look really busy so that your boss won’t think you are just having fun and not doing “real” work!)

Ready to get going? Just follow these three easy steps:

Step 1: To reach the Instagram business world, get busy downloading

Instagram is a mobile app that works best on your mobile phone. However, once you get the hang of the app, you can download a desktop app to use on your PC.

Next, you’ll need to sign up — the best way to do this is through your business email address.

You then add in your company's name and create a secure password. Once you have successfully logged in, you will need to go to settings and choose the option that says ‘Switch to business account’.

The only way to set up your business account is to first create a personal account. But not to worry, you won’t have to give any of your personal information away. (But then again the Internet knows everything about you, dun dun duuuun!)

When setting up your business profile, Instagram will ask you to link your Business Facebook page to your profile (Side note: Instagram is owned by Facebook …). By linking your Facebook page, you’ll already have some sort of social media presence and this will allow new clients to feel more comfortable clicking on that follow button. (Because you are not a complete stranger, you know!)

You’ll need to fill in some more details, such as where your company is based, your contact number and a small biography of your business. (In your bio you don’t already want to start selling to your potentially new clients. Give them some fresh air with a little joke or a fun fact that they need to know about your company; be cool!)

To ensure that people will find your business, use your company’s logo as the profile picture instead of something that they won’t relate back to your brand.


Step 2: Make the magic happen — Instagram style

Now that you’ve set up your account, you can start posting content and following other Instagram users.

When you post an image, you can tag users or businesses, add links and promote your products and services making use of all the features provided to you by Instagram.

Remember to consider your audience — and the platform’s audience — when creating your content. Instagram is all about the visuals, so skip the text-heavy posts and embrace your inner-photographer!

You can also get creative using Instagram stories, which offers stickers, GIFs, animated text and many more options to spruce up your content. Play around with your options and find what works for you, your brand and your audience.


Step 3: Start posting your amazing content

When you’re actively posting content on Instagram, you will be able to look at your insights to see who your followers are and what they like. This will allow you to create a solid, strategic plan to improve your Instagram content and to build up your follower base.

Once you have reached 10 000 followers on Instagram, (Yes, 10K! You will need to put some blood, sweat and tears into your strategy!) you will be able to unlock the ‘swipe up’ feature.

The ‘swipe up’ feature allows you to add a link to your Instagram story. Just remember that it will take time to grow your business on Instagram — just be patient and do a ton of research on how to engage correctly with you followers.

Do you think that using Instagram for your business is an important part of your social media strategy? Let us know in the comments section below.

Want to stay up to date with the latest news? Subscribe to our newsletter.

If you want to learn more about how you can build your brand on Instagram, check out our article, Infographic: How to make your brand’s Instagram Story stand out
*Image courtesy of Pexels